Connolly quiets Mustangs' bats

Mary Connolly made one of the hardest-hitting lineups in DuPage County look quite ordinary.

Backed by sterling defense, the West Chicago sophomore 1-hit host Downers Grove South 2-0 on Tuesday. Connolly's eighth shutout of the season had to be her most gratifying.

"We knew they had good hitters up and down the lineup," Connolly said. "I think this is the best game that our team has played all year. Playing against high-caliber teams, it only makes you better."

Brooke Andresen doubled to left off Connolly with two out in the bottom of the first. But Connolly (15-1) struck out the next batter, one of her 8 strikeouts, and only allowed a fifth-inning walk the rest of the way to hand Downers Grove South (14-3) its first shutout of the season.

"She has great command of her pitches," Mustangs coach Ron Havelka said, "and she probably has one of the best changeups that you'll ever see in high school. She doesn't give it away. She has the same arm motion as she does her other pitches and takes a lot off the ball. And the thing about her, she'll throw it at any count. She threw a changeup on a 3-1 count early in the game - that's having confidence in yourself."

"I had heard from coaches at Wheaton Warrenville South that (the Mustangs) were probably the best hitting team that they've ever seen, up and down the lineup, one through nine," West Chicago coach Emily Johnson said, "but we just kept everything outside. They were trying to pull everything and we just kept moving further and further out. They couldn't seem to go with the pitch."

As dominating as Connolly was, her shortstop flashed a glove that has some calling her "like Ozzie Smith." Izzy Bruce made three tough back-handed stabs to fire out runners at first.

"I stood on the bucket at one point watching her," Johnson said. "I didn't think she could get to those."

West Chicago (20-3) gave Connolly a quick lead. Freshman leadoff hitter Jessica Wood lined the first pitch of the game for a single, and an out later Chrissie Rovtar also singled on the first pitch she saw. Wood scored on a Kaity Olson grounder.

The Wildcats put the leadoff batter on in each of the first three innings. In the fourth a pop single by Wood trickled out of the glove of diving Downers Grove South third baseman Katie Jelinek to score the game's second run. A potential third run was cut down at the plate on a perfect strike from Andresen in center. Wood went 3-for-4 with 3 singles.

"Hitting leadoff as a freshman was a little intimidating at first," Wood said, "but I'm getting the hang of it. I like to look for the first good pitch and wait on it, see what I can get."